. >> host: what do we do to create the sort of environment now that promotes compromise? is it just something that happens when a nation is created, not when a nation is continued? >> guest: i think there have been a lot of times in our history, i think the constitution is a good dish call it in the book an engine of compromise. it propels us towards compromise, and one way is by making it easy to shut the whole thing down. it takes very little to bring government to a grinding halt. a couple of people in congress can do it. a president can do it. a few people on the supreme court can do it. it's much easier to keep things from happening than to make things happen, and what drives compromise is the need to do something. the need to move fur. i think that we have -- we always going to have a lot of political theater, and i love that. political -- i was an english major with a background in theater, and so i love the theatrical element of our politics. i think it's fascinating. i think it's dramatic, comic, tragic, a wonderful bit of literature. >> host: in the end, the fou